06/19/2026
Throw back Thursday
I was doing some desk cleaning a few days ago and found a roll of unprocessed film I thought had been completely ruined due to a panoramic camera malfunction. Salvageable were three panoramic frames I shot that day. Several of the old buildings along Kings Hwy. were torn down as they were deemed not worth saving. The text below is copied from the Department of Historic Resources inventory on various town buildings in the photos. I included it for additional context. I remember when that building was the variety store, and then Carrot Cottage and now home of the Northern Neck Brewery. The large building was the Harris Store and later a soap shop and then a thrift shop. I recall a very small building in between them that was a watch or clock repair shop (?) and next to it was once a bowling alley (before my time). The remaining building is now Lora’s Flower Shop. The old Victorian building partially demolished in the photo was some sort of funeral flower shop if I remember correctly. I’m sure there are many out there who have much better information than I remember, as my memory here in Montross only goes back about 35-years.
Harris Store and more….
“Several twentieth-century commercial buildings stand on Kings Highway across from the courthouse. About 1955, Virginia Harris Clapp built the flat-roofed store at 15786 Kings Highway (263-5038-0050), which historically was known as the Harris Variety Store. 49 The front elevation of the one-story masonry building is framed by a tall parapet surround with an inset signage panel. The storefront consists of a centrally located pair of glass doors flanked by full-height, plate glass windows. The commercial building at 15764 Kings Highway (263-5038-0049), which currently houses a florist and antiques business, was the second location for the Peoples Drug Store, an important amenity for the town and surrounding rural communities. Walter Norris Lowery owned and operated the store, which he founded in 1934. He moved the drugstore from a frame building (no longer standing) to this building in 1950; it is a one-story, two-bay, commercial building that has been modified in recent years (Figure 10). The brick-clad front elevation (north) holds two separate storefront entrances, each with a centrally located door flanked by large plate-glass windows. The front walkway that extends across the full-width of the building is sheltered beneath a metal-clad shed roof supported by square brick posts. Brick pilasters delineate the five bays of the stucco-clad side elevations. The building is covered by a metal-clad front-facing gable roof with an overhang at the rear that shelters the delivery area. In 1989, the drugstore moved to another building (15722 Kings Highway) under the ownership of Lowery's daughter and her husband, Margaret "Peggy" and Robert Burner. In 2001, the Burners sold the drugstore, which is well-remembered for its lunch counter and fountain service. The business closed in the early twenty-first century after nearly 70 years in operation.
